The present disclosure relates to a wheel and grouser for use in a mechanical vehicle traveling on soft ground such as sand, dirt, mud, and a field. Grousers are used to increase traction on certain types of terrains, such as rough terrains.
Examples of mechanical vehicles that move on terrains of soft soil include vehicles for planetary exploration, off-road vehicles, mechanical vehicles for construction and engineering, and mechanical vehicles for agriculture. Wheels used for those vehicles need to acquire a large drawbar pull in proportion to the amount of sinkage into the ground.
A metal vehicle mounted to a lunar/planetary rover includes wheels, each of which includes grousers provided along the outer circumference of the wheel and protruding in a center-line direction, for example (see, Squyres, S. W., Arvidson, R. E., and et. al (2003), Athena mars rover science investigation, J. Geophysical Researchs, 108(E12):8062, and Welch, R., Limonadi, D., and Manning, R. (2013), Systems engineering the curiosity rover: A retrospective. Proc.2013 8th International Conference on System of Systems Engineering, pages 70-75), the disclosures of both of which are incorporated by reference in their entirety.